Modern Wikia:Vandalism Policy
Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Modern Wikia. Vandalism cannot and will not be tolerated. Common types of vandalism are the addition of obscenities or crude humor, page blanking, and the insertion of nonsense into articles. Any good-faith effort to improve the encyclopedia, even if misguided or ill-considered, is not vandalism. Even harmful edits that are not explicitly made in bad faith are not vandalism. For example, adding a controversial personal opinion to an article once is not vandalism; reinserting it despite multiple warnings is (however, edits/reverts over a content dispute are never vandalism). Not all vandalism is obvious, nor are all massive or controversial changes vandalism. Careful thought may be needed to decide whether changes made are beneficial, detrimental but well-intended, or outright vandalism. Committing vandalism violates Modern Wikia policy. If you find that another user has vandalized Modern Wikia, you should revert these changes; you may also warn the user. Users who vandalize Modern Wikia repeatedly, despite warnings to stop, should be reported to an Administrator or the Modern Wikia Security Center, and administrators may block them. Note: that warnings are not always required; accounts whose main or only use is obvious vandalism or other forbidden activity may be blocked without warning. How to spot vandalism The best way to detect vandalism is through recent changes patrolling, using the recent changes link to spot articles with edits that had come from IP addresses, or keeping an eye on your watchlist. The what links here pages for Insert text, Link title, Headline text, Bold text, Image:Example.jpg and Image:Example.ogg are also good places to find many test edits or vandalism. Viewing the abuse log can also be used to spot vandalism. Edits tagged by the abuse filter may also contain vandalism. However, many tagged edits are legitimate, so they should not be blindly reverted. IMPORTANT: We do not have abuse filters yet so far the best way to check for vandalism is through recent changes, or file images. How to respond to vandalism If you see vandalism in an article, the simplest thing to do is just to remove it. But take care! Sometimes vandalism takes place on top of older, undetected vandalism, sometimes other editors make edits without realizing the vandalism occurred, and sometimes bots try to fix collateral damage and accidentally make things worse. Check the edit history to make sure you're reverting to a 'clean' version of the page, or if you can't tell where the best place is, take your best guess and leave a note on the article's talk page so that someone more familiar with the page can address the issue—or you can manually remove the vandalism without reverting the page back. If you see vandalism on a list of changes (such as your watchlist), then revert it immediately. You may use the "undo" button (and the automatic edit summary it generates), and mark the change as minor. It may be helpful to check the page history to determine whether other recent edits by the same or other editors also represent vandalism. Repair all vandalism you can identify. For a new article, if all versions of the article are pure vandalism, mark it for speedy deletion. To make vandalism reverts easier, you can ask an administrator for the rollback feature to be enabled for your registered account. This feature is only for reverting vandalism and other obvious disruption, and lets you revert several recent edits with a single click. IMPORTANT: Experienced vandals are users who have vandalized other sites, you can check for them on our Modern Wikia Security Center's, Criminal History. These users you should watch out for and tell an administrator as soon as they are registered on this site!!! How not to respond to vandalism Do not nominate an article for deletion because it is being vandalized. That's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and simply encourages vandalism. Do not feed the trolls. Fanning the fire will make the situation worse. Similarly, do not insult the vandals. If someone is doing something they know is wrong, insulting them over it is likely to make them vandalize more, just to get that reaction. Furthermore, Modern Wikia is not the place for personal attacks, it is not a battleground, and two wrongs don't make a right. Instead, report them to the administrators if they continue. Avoid the word "vandal". In particular, this word should not be used to refer to any contributor in good standing, or to any edits that might have been made in good faith. This is because if the edits were made in good faith, they are not vandalism. Instead of calling the person who made the edits a "vandal", discuss your concerns with them. Comment on the content and substance of the edits, instead of making personal comments. Category:Modern Wikia